Sands of Geiger
by The Varajan
Summary: In the last moments of one's life, in moments of euphoria, glory, defeat or triumph. You can see the measure of your life with a great clarity. They all asked themselves in the end; did it all matter? And the answer, was yes.
1. Prologue

**This is my first and likely only Fallout Fic since I usually fire off one idea for every category I go into. I hope you enjoy the story and grow to love the characters.**

**Prologue**

The girl looked about her, dazed and dreamily. Everything seemed to have slowed down to the flow of smoke off a cig. Or a cigar, the kind that the Sheriff Simms had enjoyed so much, she had always warned him about smoking, it was bad for you, killed and warped lung cells and made it harder for your body to process oxygen.

He always retorted that he was likelier to die from a bullet to the head, or having his brain melt because of radiation.

Speaking of which, she felt really light-headed for some reason.

Oh, yeah, she'd been shot badly.

The girl opened her eyes as wide as they could go in an effort to stay awake and looked at the people around her.

The ghoul next to her was pressing into her stomach as hard as she could, sobbing, trying to stem the flow of blood. Tears were streaming down her ragged, radiation burned face.

She couldn't remember this ghoul's name, thought the girl. But the face, was familiar. Every part of discolored, torn, indented skin, every glassy pigment mutation of her now kaleidoscope eyes, the non-existing stub of a nose she had.

Everything about her, she knew, but she just couldn't pull a name.

She smiled at the ticklish pressure on her stomach, the impromptu nurse wrapped her up in gauze and then pulled out some duck tape and was working it around her stomach and waist.

She stroked the she-ghoul's head, the same looked up and the girl crying and latched around her neck hugging her as hard as she could.

The creature had always been an affectionate, gentle soul.

The girl looked at the others that were there; a giant with no lips, a ghoul with gloves, and a knight with a cloak.

All were firing at someone in the memorial, or rather a group of people in armor with glowing white eyes who were firing back red splinters of light.

The ghoul was taking paused shots with his two pistols firing with good accuracy at the enemy, his arms were singed in several little streaks where the lasers had grazed him.

The giant was fumbling with its own gun, a hefty, cylindrical thing connected to a backpack which was disproportionally small to the creature's back. It waited for an opening to fire back, roaring as it did, his volley shredded one of the tin men's face, the ghoul with gloves opened fire at the tumbling foe.

The man with the glowing eyes dropped to the floor, rubies dripping from the holes in the armor.

The knight was firing sparingly, he seemed frustrated and angry. He grasped at his belt and he threw something at the other glowmen and everyone close to her braced themselves for something.

There was a flash and a boom.

Another of the glowing eyed men was dead, the others were holed up in a corner from which their big guns could protect them, if only for a time.

The girl squinted at the hall where her strange friends were.

Time

They were short of that, but why?

The knight came running to her and took off his helmet, he was saying something to her, but she couldn't make it out. His face looked so familiar, his unassuming, unimpressive, sweet face.

It all came back to her in an instant, they were at the memorial and the G.E.C.K was installed, however, they needed to activate it before the pressure inside the facility destroyed it.

"Eureka! We need to push the general and his shock troopers out! We are running out of time!" he was saying loudly to her over the sound of gunfire.

His name she couldn't remember but his face was as familiar as her own. The knight, he would speak loudly when he had to, but he never raised his voice, neither in anger, nor in joy, or in urgency.

Eureka latched onto his outstretched hand in order to prop herself up with the ghoul's help, then, through the door on the other end of the small landing, the door bent and was kicked open by Enclave power armor and a band of surviving soldiers edged out in an instant. Their plasma and laser weaponry trained at the giant with no lips, the ghoul with gloves, at the crying, gentle she-ghoul, at the hooded knight and at her.

They say, that before you die, your whole life flashed before your eyes.

Eureka saw, felt, smelt, and tasted everything that had transpired in her life over the past year in her mind, a trickle of thought as she saw her life in retrospect in her subconscious within a fraction of a second.

She might have wondered why it was that she had absolutely no recollection of Vault 101 in her flashback.

Perhaps it was because this was the only part of her life, one out of nineteen parts that would ever mean anything to her.

If only for a year out of her short life, she hadn't merely coasted along in life; she had lived.


	2. Eureka

**Here is Chapter I dedicated to my friend Cody, the dude who got me into Fallout. Thanks for giving me such a great game and thus the inspiration to write this story. ^&^**

**Eureka**

James Weatherby had never been happier in his life than the day his daughter took her first steps. Of course, there was the day she was born, but Catherine had died that on the same date, hence it was not a day he was fond of remembering.

Still, he couldn't help but smile at the fond memory of Eureka, little Eureka taking her first wobbly steps to him laughing all the way.

She always had been, an affable child.

He had always had a tough time raising her on his own, not that she was a difficult infant. Most of the difficulties were within his own mind and understanding.

The day she had turned ten, the day the Overseer presented her with her first Pipboy 3000 A-series. She had accepted it with a little awe, her usual reaction when being presented with a gift. It had taken her a little time to get used to the idea that the thing was supposed to go on her forearm and not slung around her jumpsuit's belt.

She had walked about the room greeting all her guests with a beaming smile on her face, if anatomy would have allowed it, her smile would have stretched from ear to ear.

Then, Butch, the Vault hooligan had tried to bully Eureka into giving him her sweetroll, one of the gifts from Old Lady Palmer. Eureka, from a young age, wasn't privy to the concept of intimidation.

She wasn't afraid of Butch, or afraid of Andy, the _Mr. Handy_ robot, that the Vault was in possession of since the bombs fell, nor was she afraid of the bowels of the generator and maintenance rooms. Here she went to bother Stanley, the Vault's technician with her interminable amount of questions about absolutely everything.

After a while, Stanley learned that Eureka needn't be faced when posing a query, so he could continue his work while listening to the little girl with half a mind and answer her questions. Some of which, caught him off guard, such as the way gravity and torque was used to keep the Vault's door closed. Explaining such things to a six year old, Stanley was quick to notice, weren't hard if you explained it to them like an adult, sure, there would be more questions about the concepts she didn't understand but he couldn't quite say no to such a amiable little apprentice.

She decided to share the sweetroll with Butch, and he not to happy with the decision just snatched it out of her hand and walked away with it. Eureka smiled at him and helped herself to some of the cake Andy had tried to cut, but ended up mutilating instead.

Butch stopped bothering her after that, shame, whatever little of it was inside him, felt bad about stealing from someone so sweet, and dare anyone say; innocent.

As Eureka grew, her mind began to strain against the rules of the Vault and the world around her. She couldn't grasp the idea that she **had** to live and die here all her life.

Her interest in soccer, a rather, unpopular sport that she played with Amata, her one friend, didn't quite satisfy her as it used to. She became closer to Stanley and learned all she could about building things, engineering, and technology. She also acquired a taste for chemistry, a Daddy's Girl if anything.

The sporty, little scientist grew awkwardly, I comparison to Amata and the other girls. While the others were solid girls, swiftly becoming women; spiritually, mentally and most noticed by the male population, anatomically. Eureka remained wiry, lean, flat-chested and boyish.

While the other girls began to take an interest in make-up and feminine clothing (as far as Vault-Tech clothing goes), she began to develop an interest in Pre-War Social Studies, while others began to take a liking to dating and the opposite sex, she began to develop a focused interest in a little robot she built; a little mechanical _"Floaterbot"_ named Theodore.

James had always been worried about her after she hit puberty, no longer for how others would treat her, constant and later on the cease of abuse from Butch proved that she would always be fine when it came to being mistreated by others. It came with what he at first was worried would be V.D.S or Vault Depression Syndrome. But her dissatisfaction and general ill-humor at times of contemplation were more with the boundaries with the world around her and the morality of the Vault's obligations such as mandatory procreation.

This was reflected on her 16th birthday, she had taken the G.O.A.T or General Aptitude Test and had turned out to be well suited for Vault Chaplain, regardless of her strong interest and aptitude in engineering and medicine.

James was heartbroken the day he had to leave her behind, he had recorded a message with Jonas, his assistant and mutual friend as an explanation, he just hoped desperately that Eureka would stay in the Vault. The outside, the Wasteland, was not kind, or merciful or forgiving. At least in the Vault, for all its faults and difficulties, would secure her a future.

She would be safe, fed and sheltered.

Three things that are precious commodities out in the real world.

But the project, he needed to make it work, then he could come back to get her, Overseer or not. But he needed to make it work.

_I am the Alpha and the Omega, and to thee I will give the waters of life freely._

_Project Purity_, was bigger than both of them.

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Eureka slid down the tunnel in the Overseer's office to the Vault door, her breath strained against the pounding in her heart and the constriction of her lungs. She was afraid. Everything had happened so fast it all blurred into one painful stab that drove itself like a migraine into her mind and her heart.

Jonas had been beaten to death.

Radroaches had found their way into the Vault and had killed several people.

Dad was gone, and he didn't tell her anything.

He didn't tell her anything about anything, he just up and left without a word!

She fought back her tears of rage in vain. Her feelings, shifted from anger to panic by the smallest provocation. A stray thought, a painful memory, something she saw or something someone said.

Eureka doubled back and flicked the switch to close the door behind her, or rather, lower the Overseer's desk back to the floor and let the locks grapple their slots.

The young lady stood there for a moment, trying to make her legs move to the door in the bottom of the shaft-like tunnel. She could feel the anger, the fear, the sadness and the regret of everything that had happened in only half an hour peeling itself out of her chest and she recoiled.

She forced herself into a run.

She reached the levered door, bathed in red by the security lights and twisted the lever. The mechanism inside released its locks and pistons and creaked open by her push.

Stepping through and down to the left, she spied a small control console and a window and past the window, a door.

Eureka shuffled to the control panel that stood unassumingly in front of the small metal landing behind the gigantic metallic cog, it was the only thing that separated them from the ravages of an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland.

Theodore floated behind her shoulder looking at everything she did attentively, he was behaving like frightened child, shyly following her movements.

She pressed the power button and waited a moment. Her mind was blank, the small dials and gauges glowed with a warm little light and pulsed alertly. Spying a small slide that said _"Open" _and the end said "_Closed"_ she plucked at the slider and pushed it up.

Something akin to a gigantic screwdriver clanked and reached up to a drill hole in the wall and screwed itself in. After a tense silence, it removed itself and the door was scrapped sideways with a great screech. A guttural, metallic sound that sliced at the eardrums.

She stood there for a moment, all her feelings gone for a moment, mouth agape at the small stone cavern beyond it.

An eighteen year old girl, stood alone, before the world. All her life, just like the members of the Vault, her world was approximately 5000 square feet. What was beyond the door, she did not know.

She turned on her heel and nearly screamed when Amata came running through the side chamber.

"My God, Eureka you-you did it! You opened the door, I almost didn't think it was possible" said her friend between breaths.

Eureka looked at the world beyond, terrified and taking panicky breaths.

Amata's amazement faded as she saw the look on Eureka's face.

Her friend was crying, Eureka never cried.

"Eureka listen, you aren't safe in the Vault, and you need to leave"

Amata felt terrible, dumbass, she was stating the obvious. She inched closer to Eureka and slipped both hands around to Eureka's back and hugged her gently.

"If anyone can survive out there, its you. Go find your Dad"

Before the girl could say anything, two officers came dashing through the hall, "Bloody hell! Don't let them get away!" yelled one of them drawing his pistol and the other his police baton.

One shot rang out and nailed Amata on her right shoulder, the Overseer's daughter cried out. Before Eureka could react, Amata pushed her out of the landing and out the door with a surprisingly strong shove and shifted the switch.

The door closed faster than it opened, Eureka, through screams of panic she yelled Amata's name as the door closed with the same slicing, grinding, scrape. In comparison with the bright lights of the Vault, the cavern she was in seemed like a dark void, the shadows around her, a tangible water that was surrounding her just waiting for the light to leave her so it could swallow her.

Eureka sat, sobbing in the entrance of the Vault staring at the number 101 on the door's epicenter and the slowly fading lights, their coils, losing life, and the glow, losing fervor.

Amata had done something to the door to power it down and now she was in complete darkness, the door, was as cold and unmoving as the rocky walls around her.

Eureka was outside, meaning she was as good as dead, no one was coming for her.

Her eyes were wide open, her mouth, slightly agape tasting, listening, feeling.

She could feel the dark on the stones, hear the darkness flow and she could taste it in her mouth. As she collected some of her calm she realized that Amata had been shot, if something else had happened, she didn't hear it. She had learnt from Stanley that the door was sound and blast proof. Nothing had penetrated the door in 200 years, and she was not going to be the first.

She nearly jumped when she heard Theodore coo to her inquisitively.

"Theo, are you ok?"

The little bot blinked its blue lights once and nudged her on the shoulder.

"I'm ok too Theo"

She could have smiled if she wasn't so scared, she had given Theo the closest thing there was to true A.I. Theo was aware of itself to her knowledge, but he just had a very limited personality but he was smart and was learning.

On his own accord, Theo turned the lights around his expressive lens gradually and away from her as to not overwhelm her sight.

She appreciated it, any more unnecessary surprises or shocks avoided, would be a blessing. She got up wobbly, the ground below her was unstable and shifted. Eureka didn't have the strength to cry out when she saw the gaggle of skeletons around her, all of their bones were ragged and worn by their time in the dark cave. Some of them clutched at posters nailed onto planks of wood.

"_We are dying help us!"_

"_Bastards!"_

"_Motherfuckers don't leave us out here!"_

"_I am dying!"_

"_H E L P"_

"_I lost my parents please help me!"_

Eureka goose stepped around the skeletons, as if touching them would awaken them and they would take out their rage and despair upon her.

Theodore looked at the dead then followed Eureka closely providing her with light.

He understood that she was upset, humans were so strange, they felt a lot, so he was going to be really quiet and give her some space, which is what humans like when they are upset.

Theodore was pulled out of its thoughts when Eureka screamed out loud and fell backwards into a corner.

Another human showed up, or at least, anatomically he concluded it had to be a human, but its current appearance was rather uncommon.

It was wearing ragged, heavy clothing, boots, a light long sleeved jacket which had metallic armor on it, the hands wore gloves and the head was concealed by a hood and a goggle eyed, elephant trunked contraption which he deduced to be a gas-mask.

The human was holding something made of metal, and wood, but Theo didn't quite know what it was, he hadn't ever downloaded any information on anything like it, but the way he held it, Theodore concluded it must be a weapon.

The stranger stared at both of them behind the sheen of the mask and peered around them, his whole body tense and ready to react. After looking at the door her centered back to both of them neutrally not devoting any attention in particular to either of them, likely expecting both of attempting to run away, which was the only response Theodore knew of when dealing with any situation involving physical harm.

Eureka raised the palm of her hand to block the light coming from the stranger's rifle.

"Please, don't hurt us"

The stranger looked her over and then back at the door to Vault 101.

"Where did you come from?"

"Vault 101" she answered promptly, trying to disguise the fear in her voice.

"Do you have any weapons I should know about?"

"I'm unarmed"

The stranger lowered his rife slightly and eyed Theodore, after a moment he seemed to be sure that the bot wasn't a threat and inched closer to Eureka. He handled the rifle with one hand and offered her the other. He joisted her up, dirt and grime smeared on her jumpsuit and face from poking around the cavern.

"Why are you out here?"

"I-I left the Vault to look for someone" she answered, trying to seem as though she had left by her own will, and not forced out.

The stranger had lowered his rifle completely now.

"So, the door is closed and shut, and since the door and console are powered down, I'd take it that its not going to open again soon"

Eureka looked back and nodded nervously.

"What shall I call you I wonder"

Eureka just looked at him, her face tilted down a little, the same way a littlie looks at an adult when they are in trouble.

"I mean; What's your name?"

"Eureka, Eureka Weatherby"

The stranger eyed her once more and walked back the way he came. He looked back after he was almost out of sight, "Well come on Eureka Weatherby, you need someplace to stay, and you'll be safe with me" he said as sweetly as he could, mustering the kindness since he was aware that the rifle slung across his back and gas-mask gave him a deadly appearance.

He took only half a step more and half glanced back at her waiting for her to follow, then he seemed to remember something.

"My name is Hood"

Eureka looked at Theodore and took a few tentative steps forward and stared at him, both of their eyes were locked with one another.

After what seemed like an age she stepped into march after him.

He led her to a part of the cavern which was lit to a degree, and in what seemed like the distance, stood a wooden door with golden light seeping in through the rickety gaps.

She stopped behind him abruptly when he stopped in front of the golden door, he turned around with what she thought to be excitement and gently grasped her elbow and opened the door, leading her through into the golden light.

"Welcome to the Capital Wasteland" he said to her.

Who this stranger was, she didn't know.

Where he father was, she didn't know either.

But under the circumstances, she allowed herself to be in someone else's hands, someone she didn't know, understand or even trust. But she decided to trust him anyway, he obviously knew the land, he was careful and hadn't harmed her or Theo. Maybe Hood was someone who could answer her questions and in the end help her, or at least point her in the right direction.

Besides, he was the one who was holding the rifle.


End file.
